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Once you've gotten beyond the point of just keeping CPs alive, you might want to start venturing into the realms of maintaining them in good growth. Despite conventional wisdom of advising against fertilising CPs, the truth is that many CPs actually do tolerate a very light fertilising regime and will put on a good spurt of growth.
Before we proceed any further, just a disclaimer here. I reiterate what's been mentioned in the basic cultivation guide - CPs will catch their own prey, and will do well even if left to their own devices as long as their basic needs are met. If you wish to fertilise them and are inexperienced, start off with a lower-than-recommended dilution (i.e. if 50% diluted fertiliser is mentioned, you can err on the side of caution and use 20% first, titrating upwards from there).
Feeding your plants is a simple matter of putting prey into their traps. Use a little bit of common sense when it comes to selecting prey size - it's foolish to try and stuff a full-sized house roach into an average flytrap. As a general rule of thumb, give the plants prey that are less than half as large as the traps themselves, and you will seldom go amiss.
Live Foods
Almost any live food can be used. In the local context, bird or pet shops commonly stock mealworms, "superworms",crickets and small grasshoppers. Before feeding any of these foods, kill the insect quickly and humanely, or at least incapacitate them by beheading them with a blade. Otherwise, they will escape and in the worst case scenario (believe me, I've seen them do it) they will end up chewing on the plants instead. Stuff that are caught in the garden or house, such as ants, crickets or slugs, can also be used.
Processed Foods
With the advent of the fishkeeping hobby, there is an abundance of processed food to choose from. Why slave away on your knees in the garden catching food, when they can be had from a tin? These include freeze-dried crickets, bloodworms and even maggots. Soak these in purified water for 15-30 minutes until they are rehydrated, then use a pair of tweezers or a toothpick to feed them to the plants. Frozen bloodworms are also excellent, just thaw them out and wash briefly in water first. Note that for flytraps, the trap will require additional stimulation after the traps have closed in order to create a tight seal. This is a natural adaptation to ensure that non-prey items such leaves, or animals too small to be worth digesting such as gnats, have a chance to escape/be blown away before the plant invests energy into digesting it. To overcome this, wait for 2-3 minutes after the traps have closed, then apply a gentle squeezing pressure to the trap for a few times, and repeat once every couple of minutes later. The plant will be tricked into thinking it had caught a live, sizable insect and will start on its thing.
Artificial Fertiliser
Now to the potentially disastrous stuff. The safest way to administer artificial fertiliser is via foliar feeding, so as to avoid harming the roots. I recommend either a fish/kelp based fertiliser, or dissolvable granules that are high in nitrogen and urea-free. Dilute these to at least 50% of the recommended dosage in a spray bottle, and mist onto the traps. So far, I have tried both basic NPK and seaweed fertilisers on Sarracenia, Nepenthes, Cephalotus and Drosera with no adverse effects if they are properly diluted. Foliar fertiliser should be applied either very early at dawn or late evening, as residual salts left on the leaves/traps will cause burn to the leaves in intense sunlight. It may also be good practice to flush the pots with purified water every month or so, to rinse out any fertiliser that may have accumulated in the growing medium over time. Some growers have also tried slow-release granules such as Osmocote, applied directly into the traps of Nepenthes or Sarracenia. |
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Fertilising CPs